AN: Here we are, another chapter here.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
The aliens took the bait that they offered and ran off chasing the sprint team that Kathryn assembled. Kathryn rushed to the cave entrance with the rest of her small team and started snatching the burning pieces of piled up brush away from the entrance. AS soon as it was moved and the air wasn't quite as thick with smoke, Kathryn was able to step closer to the entrance of the cave. There was a rumbling inside and Kathryn felt her chest tighten. The tremors, no doubt, that were vibrating the ground to warn them about the volcano had damaged the structural integrity of the cave. It was possible that it could collapse on top of anyone inside.
"Come on!" Kathryn called into the cave. "Hurry! Let's move!"
One by one, her people emerged from the cave and Kathryn waved them past her and back toward their camp.
As the rumbling inside the cave started to intensify, so did Kathryn's worry over Chakotay. Suddenly she could barely breathe and her head felt lighter than it had. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to hold it together if he didn't come out of the cave.
Kathryn was seconds from rushing into the cave to try to find him herself when Chakotay finally emerged as the last one to leave the cave. The interior of the cave collapsed nearly the second that he was outside of it and Kathryn nearly collapsed, herself, in response. The flood of relief that she felt was instant, but she still had to steady herself for a second over her body's reaction to the sudden changes in her emotions. Chakotay, having built up some momentum as he fled the cave, darted past her a few feet before he turned around and came back to get her. She met him, moving already to follow the group back in the direction of the camp.
Both of them fell back, when they were safely in sight of the camp, allowing the rest of the group to go on without them. Hoping they weren't being watched, Kathryn sunk into Chakotay and he wrapped his arms tightly around her.
"I was worried something happened and you weren't coming out," Kathryn said, practically breathing out the words. She felt the rush of relief that she'd felt earlier come over her again. This time her relief was even more complete because she could feel Chakotay's body in her arms. "I was so scared, Chakotay. I was terrified that something happened."
Chakotay interrupted her worry over something that hadn't happened by informing her of what he actually had faced while they'd been separated.
"Something almost did happen. I think we found what killed Hogan. It was a large—a snake-like species, I guess. It was sleeping in the cave. When we woke it, accidentally, it tried to attack us. We didn't have the ability to kill it, but we collapsed the cave to trap it inside."
"You think there might be more of them?" Kathryn asked.
"I think it's best if nobody goes exploring caves alone," Chakotay said. "Just to be sure."
"And the aliens?" Kathryn asked. "They were trying to suffocate you. They were trying to smoke you out of the cave."
"Communication between us was limited," Chakotay said. "I basically took Neelix and Kes back and they weren't pleased with that. Still, I'm not certain that they simply want to attack us. We have to remember that we're as alien to them as they are to us."
"You don't think they're a threat?" Kathryn asked.
"I absolutely think they are," Chakotay said. "But I'm not ready to say that they want to be a threat. If we could work to communicate with them, I believe we might be able to establish some kind of understanding."
"Then we'll work on it," Kathryn said. "We don't know how long we'll be here. If we're going to be living on this planet, we're going to be coexisting with them for a long time. It would be better for all of us if we could do that peacefully."
Chakotay nodded his agreement at her and then he stood, his hands holding the upper part of her arms, and stared at her. He almost looked cross, but there was a hint of a smile on his lips that brought the slight indentation of dimples to his cheeks.
"What is it?" Kathryn asked.
"I thought I told you to stay at the camp," Chakotay said. "I thought—I distinctly remember—knowing that you have a fever and Kes said you needed to rest. I believe that I told you to stay at the camp and help get breakfast ready. I don't remember telling you to go off—to go off fighting against alien species with...what were you going to use for weapons?"
Kathryn laughed to herself.
"It doesn't matter," she said. "You're safe now. I'm fine. The fever is never going to break, Chakotay. I'm either going to die from it or learn to live with it. I've decided to do the latter for as long as possible."
"What were you using for weapons, Kathryn?" Chakotay asked again. "If things hadn't gone in your favor?"
Kathryn laughed to herself again.
"Rocks," she said. "But they were heavy rocks. And B'Elanna was with me. I'm pretty sure we could have held our own."
Chakotay sucked in a breath and let it out before he pulled her to him and held her tight enough against him that she almost felt like telling him that it was a bit too tight. She didn't say anything, though. She simply let him have the contact that he seemed to need because she'd needed it earlier.
"We have to get back," Kathryn said when Chakotay released her. "We've got to figure out what we're doing next. We've got to start discussing the long term. We can't just sit around and count on rescue."
There was a loud sound like a thunderclap and Kathryn jumped. The volcano had been letting off rumbling sounds, but none had been quite as sharp and loud before. Chakotay jumped too, and he snatched his head in the direction of the noise.
"I think we've got our answer about what we're doing next," he said. He pointed toward the volcano and Kathryn let her eyes go in the direction that he indicated. Lava was starting to spew out of the volcano and it was already beginning to run down the side of it. It wouldn't be long before it reached them and swallowed up their camp. Kathryn immediately darted in the direction of the camp, sure that Chakotay was just behind her.
"We've got to get everyone! It's time to move!" Kathryn yelled back at him seconds before she started yelling to get the attention of the crew. They didn't have time to waste.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
As they ran, Kathryn's lungs burned like fire. She assumed, having never been quite so close to an erupting volcano, that inhaling some of the particles it must be releasing into the air made her feel that way. They were all running as hard as they could for higher ground to try to escape the quickly running river of lava. As they ran, they saw the aliens that they'd encountered earlier running toward the same mountains that they had chosen as their destination, but there was no fighting among them. They were all simply trying to survive at the moment.
Once they were about halfway up one of the mountains that they intended to use to escape the lava, and once some of the panic of the moment was subsiding a little, Kathryn was able to focus some of her attention on the crew. She noticed that the particles that she'd imagined were making it difficult for all of them to breathe only seemed to be affecting her. Everyone else was no more than regularly winded from their sprinting. She was the only one that was struggling to go from one breath to the next.
They were holding back for her, too. All of them were. Most of her crew was ahead of her and could have been much farther ahead. They might have already made it to the top if they weren't holding back for her. Chakotay was barely even running at all and he was still keeping pace with her. She wasn't that out of shape, but still she felt like she was suffocating. She didn't know what was happening, but it was starting to concern her more and more. She felt like she couldn't speak to anyone about her situation, though, because she didn't even have that much air to spare.
When they heard the screaming behind them, they all stopped their upward progress and looked back. The aliens were right behind them, but they were distracted by what was happening. No matter the language that one spoke, screams of terror were universal. So were sounds of absolute and overwhelming grief.
One of the aliens—a female, Kathryn guessed by the sounds of her screams—was stuck on a rock below. The lava had rushed down, filling the low-lying area, and she was surrounded. If she didn't get off the rock soon, the lava might swallow her up, but she seemed frozen by her terror. Around them, the aliens were reacting as any creature might. All of them seemed distraught, but one in particular was frantic to the point that Kathryn assumed that the female left behind might very well be his mate.
Kathryn felt a hand close around the upper part of her arm and she glanced back to see that it was Tuvok who now had a tight hold on her. He must have silently communicated something with Chakotay because Chakotay darted off from Kathryn's side and made his way back down the mountain. Kathryn immediately understood why Tuvok held her arm. Vulcans didn't share human emotions, but they understood them. He would know, even if she kept it inside, that watching Chakotay run toward a river of lava would make Kathryn feel more like she was going to die than she already felt. His tight hold on her arm held her in place when her body instinctively lurched forward like she might be able to go after Chakotay and save him from his own decisions.
Chakotay rushed down the side of the mountain and made the jump that the female alien seemed too terrified to make. Once he was on the rock with her, she looked like she was trying to decide if she was more afraid of Chakotay or the lava. Watching them, Kathryn feared that she might jump into the lava in some kind of attempt to get away from Chakotay. She had no way of knowing, as Kathryn did, that Chakotay wouldn't dream of hurting her—at least not if there were any way to avoid it. Finally Chakotay caught the woman and heaved her up and over his shoulder. Kathryn held her breath as he made the short jump back over to the side of the mountain and caught himself when his foot seemed to slip beneath him. He carried the woman up the side of the mountain and didn't stop to put her down until he could deposit her practically in front of the alien that Kathryn assumed was her mate.
If the aliens offered any sort of spoken thanks, it was impossible to tell. The noises they made meant very little to English-speaking ears. They did climb quickly past Kathryn and much of her crew, though, and the alien who had been so concerned about his mate waved at them all to follow. When her crew looked back to her for some word on what they should do, Kathryn nodded to give them the go ahead and they started quickly after the aliens.
Kathryn stood in her spot until Chakotay reached her. He rested his hand on her back.
"Are you OK?" Chakotay asked.
Kathryn swallowed.
The few moments that they'd had to rest were making it easier for her to breathe, but she could tell that something wasn't right. She was inhaling and exhaling the only way that she knew how, but she distinctly felt like she wasn't getting air. Her lungs burned. They felt tight and irritated. She felt a little lightheaded even standing still.
But she wasn't going to tell Chakotay all that, even if she was pretty certain that he could somehow simply tell by looking at her.
"I'm fine," she assured him as best she could. She heard that her voice wasn't quite normal. It came out like her throat was dry and scratchy and her breath was hung in her chest. Suddenly, Kathryn became aware that she could hear her own breathing. She was starting to wheeze, a sound that she hadn't been making before.
Chakotay frowned at her. Maybe he heard the sound too, or maybe he simply didn't believe that she was fine.
"I can carry you," he said. "Kathryn—you don't weigh anything."
Kathryn shook her head and, in an attempt to save what breath she had instead of spending it in a conversation with Chakotay over the fact that she wasn't going to arrive at their new camp being carried, she started up the mountain again in the direction that the aliens had taken her crew.